Democrats typically take a laisse faire, whatever happens, happens, it’s all good, approach to elections. No worries, mate. What? Pardon me, did you mention something about Bush V. Gore in 2000? Oh, yeah – how could I forget that? They got their shorts in a pretty tight bunch about that one didn’t they? But generally, they don’t sweat the electoral process, unless something goes terribly wrong – such as that. Usually, their carefree and lighthearted attitude about the process can be attributed to their well established ‘ground game’. Funny how liberals, who generally find grungy, violent, impact sports like football, not much to their tastes – still like to adopt the vernacular of the game; ‘Astro-Turf(ing), ‘Ground Game’, etc. It’s a tactic that they have taken to of late, trying to affect Blue Collar sensibilities - like pretending to be into NASCAR. That was an equal opportunity flop – didn’t work for Romney too well either. When Democrats mention their ‘ground game’, it is to be understood that this is a code word for their traditional superiority in the arts of operating massive voting fraud franchises. This is something they have been doing with style and precision for well over a century. Really it goes all the way back to the reconstruction era in the South, on through the era of Boss Tweed and into the present day. When Democrats waive the ‘bloody shirt’ of Jim Crow, they fail to explain to you that it was the Democrat political machine that perpetrated the ‘disenfranchisement’ of would be Black voters. That is, I suppose, an inconvenient truth. Later the Democrat party learned that if it was not always possible to prevent someone from voting who might make the wrong choice at the poll, there were ways of invalidating those votes through folding in copious numbers of fictitious ones. Perhaps the master of this was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson, ever since his days as a newly elected Congressman from the Hill Country region of Texas, where his father was a widely known career politician – set about laying a foundation of bought and paid for election officials throughout the state. Aside from the fact that LBJ wormed his way immediately into the inner sanctums of the House Democrat leadership and eventually made himself an invaluable wheel in the machines of House Majority Leader Sam Rayburn and President Franklin D. Roosevelt – Johnson rigged and stole every election he was ever a contestant in. In Texas, at that time, if you had County Sheriffs and Judges in your back pocket – you could employ any devious method ever conceived and get the results you wanted, without fail. One of the more fascinating examples was the 1948 Senate election against former Texas Governor, Coke Stevenson. At the time, John B. Connally, the future Governor and wounded passenger in J.F.K.’s limousine in November 1963, was LBJ’s campaign manager. Connally was able to arrange the last minute inclusion of 202 ballots in Precinct 13 in Jim Wells County. That the votes rolled in neatly in alphabetical order, was a nice touch. Even better was that they were all dead. Little does that matter, when the Democrats need a rainmaker in Washington D.C. Richard Nixon was to discover that fact in 1960 as well. The chief attribute of LBJ that was so greatly appealing to the Democrat party in that election, was Johnson’s mastery of corrupting the outcome of elections. So much so, that despite the distaste and misgivings of the Kennedys, LBJ was foist upon them nonetheless. If you are hooked on political history, as I am, one of the best books I have read is called ‘A Texan looks at LBJ – A Study in Illegitimate Power’, written by J. Evetts Haley – the pre-eminent historian of Texas politics of that era. None of the tricks that LBJ used were particularly innovative. They had been put to use elsewhere, but seldom with the demonic intensity that he employed in Texas. Other notable examples of the invincible Democrat political machine with its inexhaustible bag of tricks, was the Kennedy machine in Boston and the Richard J. Daley organization in Chicago, which became entrenched beginning in the early 50′s and was always intimately connected with the Kennedys because of Joe Kennedy Sr.’s extensive business and political influence in that city. Without revisiting old ground that is better detailed in Robert Caro’s excellent biography of LBJ – ‘The Path to Power’ and J. Evetts Haley’s book, along with other revealing Kennedy bios, such as ‘The Dark Side of Camelot’ by Seymour Hirsch – my point is simply that Democrats have dirt under their fingernails that goes way back before the ACORN shenanigans. All of this makes the hysterical caterwauling about ‘disenfranchising minority voters’ coming from Democrats and their liberal allies, all the more laughably ironic. The hypocrisy is more palpable than the humidity in Washington D.C. in August. It also appears to be evidence that the tide of history (in respect to ‘loosey goosey’ election chicanery), is moving away from them. Consider the trends in these states: Since 2001, nearly 1,000 voter verification bills have been introduced in a total of 46 states. Twenty-one states have passed major legislation during the period 2003-2011, and those bills are summarized in the timeline below. 2003: New voter ID laws were passed in Alabama, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota 2005: New voter ID laws were passed in Indiana, New Mexico and Washington; Georgia tightened an existing voter ID law to require photo ID 2006: New voter ID law passed in Ohio; Georgia passed a law providing for the issuance of voter ID cards at no cost to registered voters who do not have a driver’s license or state-issued ID card; Missouri tightened an existing voter ID law to require photo ID 2008: New Mexico relaxed an existing voter ID law, and now allows a voter to satisfy the ID requirement by stating his/her name, address as registered, and year of birth 2009: New voter ID law passed in Utah 2010: New voter ID law passed in Idaho; Oklahoma voters approved a voter ID proposal placed on the ballot by the Legislature 2011: New voter ID laws passed in Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas tightened existing voter ID laws to require photo ID (new laws in Texas and South Carolina are on hold pending USDOJ preclearance). Governors in Minnesota, Missouri,Montana, New Hampshire and North Carolina vetoed strict new photo ID laws in 2011. According to the NCSL (National Conference of State Legislators), 2012 has continued the trend. “Voter ID continues to be a high-profile issue in many state legislatures this year. This year, legislation is pending in 32 states so far. That includes new voter ID proposals in 14 states, proposals to strengthen existing voter ID laws in ten states, and bills in nine states to amend the new voter ID laws passed in 2011. The governor signed a new voter ID bill on March 14 in Pennsylvania, and the Virginia General Assembly has sent a new voter ID bill to the governor.” The standard talking point in objection to laws designed to prevent your vote from being invalidated by that of a dead individual, a convicted felon, an illegal migrant, or a Democrat elections apparatchik, is that these laws have nothing to do with preventing fraud, but have everything to do with the ‘suppression’ of minority voters – Blacks, Hispanics, the elderly and the poor. Atypical of the rhetoric is this, from who else? – the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): “Voting rights are under attack in this country as state legislatures nationwide pass voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right.” What you find out when you read further, is that the ACLU bases this claim on nothing more than the estimate they provide that 11 percent of potential voters, “lack such ID, and would be required to navigate the administrative burdens to obtain it or forego the right to vote entirely.” I suspect that as an inflated or fictitious figure, as most Democrat talking points are. One of the side benefits of researching the politics of the Left, is the entertainment factor inherent in the rhetoric they employ. ‘Navigate the administrative burdens’ – oh what an emission of methane gas that is! What makes it even more mind expanding is the fact that it is the Democrats, with the cumulative efforts toward exponentially growing government, who have created these very ‘administrative burdens’ though the bureaucracies they have lovingly fostered. Suddenly, once a potential Democrat voter may be required by the state to obtain something they should already have (for a myriad of practical reasons), the bureaucracy that the Democrats have mothered, becomes a burden! Another oft repeated bit of nonsense is that there is no demonstrated proof of voter fraud. This is an assertion that defies rational comprehension. It’s the same thing as shutting yourself in a room without windows and maintaining that there is no proof that the Sun came up this morning. I happen to know a gentleman who was at the receiving end of a gross and egregious case of vote fraud; former Congressman Robert K. ‘B-1 Bob’ Dornan, who lost his district to illegal voting, and can cite you chapter and verse of how it was done. Likewise Norm Coleman in Minnesota. John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal discovered during research for an upcoming book on the subject, that: “In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that up to three percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls over a two-year period in just one U.S. district court were not citizens. While that might not seem like many, just three percent of registered voters would have been more than enough to provide the winning presidential vote margin in Florida in 2000.” Speaking of Florida, Governor Rick Scott last week, commented: “We’ve already confirmed that non-citizens have voted in past elections here in Florida. Now that we have the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security, our state can use the most accurate citizenship database in the nation to protect the integrity of Florida’s election process.” The disease of electoral misconduct in Illinois has inflected voting activity in Indiana in recent years. Dr. Deb Fleming, the county’s Republican chairwoman, told the South Bend Tribune that the Democratic machine has dominated her backyard for decades. “They have ‘a culture of corruption’ here and throughout Indiana. ‘I’m sure there are other things. They’ve just never gotten caught. Because they’ve been in control of St. Joseph County for so long, they felt they could get away with it.” In New York, a first round of prosecutions against Democratic Elections Commissioner Edward McDonough and his co-defendant, former Councilman Michael LoPorto, ended in mistrials last month. The two men also face separate voter fraud charges involving a plot by Democrats to win the radical Working Families Party primary back in 2009. The WFP is a front group for President Obama’s dear old friends at fraud-plagued ACORN. Fox News Channel investigative reporter Eric Shawn noted that a whistle-blower in the case, WFP employee Sarah Couch, told investigators that her bosses “asked her to issue a Working Families Party press release that would ‘point blame at the Republican Party,’ and she refused to do so.” Another whistle-blower, Democratic operative Anthony DeFiglio, told police that “faking absentee ballots was a commonplace and accepted practice in political circles, all intended to swing an election.” As the subject turns to ACORN, the blanket denials from the Left of pervasive voting fraud, become out and out preposterous. From 1998 to 2008, state and county election officials and District attorneys have found 35 significant instances of attempted and successful violations of election laws relating to the deliberate forgery of tens of thousands of voting registration forms, spanning 17 states. A few highlights, courtesy of ‘Rotten Acorn’: 2003 – Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally. 2005 – Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque NM, ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.” 2008 – ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards. 2008 – Pennsylvania State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found “clearly fraudulent” signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud. 2008 – In Harris County (Houston, TX area), nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information. 2007 – Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive. 2008 – At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies. 2009 – In November 2009, Democratic operative Anthony DeFiglio told New York State police investigators that faking absentee ballots was a commonplace and accepted practice in political circles, all intended to swing an election. 2011 – 12 people have been charged in Georgia for voter fraud as they used absentee ballots to skew an in election in Georgia. The 12 people charged are ALL with the Democrat Party. The defendants include some workers in the voter registrar’s office and some school board members. They are Angela Bryant, April Proctor, Brenda Monds, Debra Denard, Lula Smart, Kechia Harrison, Robert Denard, Sandra Cody, Elizabeth Thomas, Linda Troutman, Latashia Head, and Nancy Denard. This is just a small sample. It is wise to bear in mind that these are merely the incidents in which the voting fraud was discovered by authorities. One can logically conclude that there are several times as many cases that are not uncovered. Still, the mantra from progressives is that vote fraud is ‘rare’. I’d hate to ask them what magnitude of this criminal activity would be required for them to label it ‘common’. One thing that you will hear repeatedly from the advocates of unverified voting practices is that the number of convictions for such actions is quite insignificant. Not only is that not the case, but a little more in-depth research yields the realization that the partisan political machine in the areas where the problem is most egregious, finds itself nestled comfortably in the protective arms of Democratic District Attorneys. Minnesota is a state with out of control vote stealing and tampering. On October 16th of 2009, Minnesota Majority’s submitted affidavits attesting to our findings on felon voters to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner. In all, 1,359 names of suspected ineligible felon voters were forwarded to these county attorneys for investigation, with supporting evidence. Eight months after Minnesota Majority provided evidence of felon voters to the county attorneys, Hennepin County has charged 3 individuals with fraudulent voting by felons and Ramsey County has quietly charged an additional 6 persons. So, despite protestations to the contrary, the facts simply do not support the contention from the Left that vote fraud and the potential for it is a matter of triviality. Quite the contrary. The other half of their argument is that obtaining an ID card is an untenable burden for those on the margins of society. Well, they might want to find a safe spot in which to witness that old rotten bridge being dynamited, because – are you ready for this? – Mexico has been implementing a election fraud prevention infrastucture for 8 years now! Mexico, that country that liberals applaud when their leaders complain about our harsh immigration enforcement practices – doesn’t trust politicians or voters at the regional, state or federal levels. Mexico’s Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) an autonomous, non-partisan organization charged with free and fair elections contracts the manufacture of voter ID cards to a private firm called Digimarc. Digimarc’s Mexico-based secure ID factory began production of voter ID cards on March 29, 2004. In the three years since then, nearly 25 million credentials have been produced and Mexico’s voter ID card is now widely regarded as one of the most secure, reliable voter identification systems in the world. So trusted is the integrity of Mexico’s voter ID credential that amid all the controversy surrounding the close presidential election on July 2, 2006, no one questioned the security, reliability, or authenticity of Mexico’s voter identification itself. Indeed, Mexico’s voter ID has become the country’s de facto identification document and is readily accepted as positive proof-of-identity by merchants, banks, government officials, and citizens nationwide. Oh, and can I add one more detail? Mexico provides this ID at a moderate cost for those of means and at no cost to the poor. I can just hear the tortured screams of lamentation, the renting of garments and the uprooting of hair follicles from progressives, now that their fragile argument against secure voting identification has evaporated before their very eyes. A little case of cognitive dissonance for the Left in America, I’d say. The only country that illegals from Mexico have a sporting chance of unlawfully casting a vote, is in the good old Estatos De Unitos. Their own country has put the kibosh on vote fraud. What are we waiting for?
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 14:28:42 +0000
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